Take a moment and travel in your imagination to the end of time—to the great day of judgment. The record books are open and you are standing before God the judge.

Life can indeed be a perilous journey. John Newton’s famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”, speaks of "dangers, toils and snares" that he experienced firsthand. On one occasion, he was thrown from a horse, narrowly missing impalement on a row of sharp stakes.

Have you ever been homesick? Perhaps you experienced homesickness as a child while attending a camp? Christian believers are very much a pilgrim people who find themselves homesick for heaven.

True character often emerges under pressure. True convictions often are shown in the furnace of difficulty. And true faith is often revealed in the kiln of testing.

Several famous people narrowly missed boarding the Titanic. One of them was John Raleigh Mott. He was an influential evangelist and YMCA official who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.